Campaign Sideshow in Mexico

...At the same time, Labastida is under heavy fire from Manuel Camacho Solis, standard bearer of the Party of the Democratic Center (PCD), founded in 1998...

...He was considered an undesirable, Camacho maintained, because Salinas and his entourage "no longer saw me as a man of the orthodox PRI" and worried that he might be sufficiently popular to get elected president as an independent...

...The group, according to Camacho, consists of "hardliners of the system" who use the methods of "fascist regimes and...

...For if he becomes president, he will "open the Acteal file [on peasants who were massacred in Chiapas], the Aguas Biancas file [on peasants who were massacred in Guerrero], and...

...Significantly, Toledo's successor—none other than Labastida—was forced to expel the Federal judicial police from Sinaloa en masse after its members murdered a number of state officials in retaliation for the arrest of several judiciales...

...But more interesting than the overall picture were theprojectionsby educational level, gender and age...

...Typical of these methods is the practice of singling out an enemy and "accusing him of every type of crime...

...A Princeton graduate, Camacho served as Secretary of Foreign Relations (equivalent to Secretary ofState)inl993,andthenas government mediator in Chiapas from January to June 1994...

...Lee Johnson, former press attaché to U.S...

...Customs Service Director William von Raab sent a letter to the State Department that said Toledo and Governor Samuel Ocafia of Sonora State were involved with narcotics traffickers...

...What impact are the attacks by Camacho and Toledo likely to have on the July 2 election...

...Some observers here explain the posture as a panic reaction on the part of Labastida and his advisers...

...Later, in an interview, he cited Camacho by name as someone responsible for the hostile atmosphere, even if not for the actual tragedy...

...The same oh-so-above-it-all performance was repeated following a March 26 meeting between Labastida and a farm group in the Mexicali area...

...So far, Toledo Corro has been able to ride out the stomi, dismissing allegations against him as being in the "they say" category, i.e...

...In addition, he told listeners that on November 28, 1993, Camacho threw a tantrum upon learning that then outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had chosen Colosio, and not him, as his designated successor...

...Accused of ties with drug traffickers, some of the officers were allegedly members of the Crazy Pig's gang who had infiltrated the police...

...Of course not...

...Toledo was the Governor of Sinaloa from 1980 to 1986...

...Fox immediately fingered ex-Governor Toledo, saying he was so friendly with drug king Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo that the two frequently played dominoes together...

...Toledo was further compromised by charges against him in Mexico's Congress from both Right- and Left-wing deputies...

...Labastida's reaction to Camacho's blast, whether real or feigned, was one of lofty disdain...

...Change (Fox...

...In 1994 the 2635ers were between 20 and 29 years old, the age when one is beginning to get started in a career...

...There are interesting similarities between Labastida's criticisms of Camacho and some of the observations made following President John F. Kennedy's assassination...

...In the 18-25 bracket...

...A Left-wing Mexico City weekly has reported that Labastida made an indiscreet off-the-cuff remark identifying Camacho as the "author" of a plot to kill Colosio...

...Fox' pit bull is a former governor of Sinaloa State, Antonio Toledo Corro...

...Her murder is cited in a recent article in the Mexico City weekly Lo Crisis, which charges that Labastida, for all his pious lip service to the antidrug effort, was almost as tolerant of the narcobarons during his term of office as Toledo...

...These elders may not be wild about PRI (the party of Echeverria, Lopez Portillo and Salinas de Gortari), but their philosophy is definitely one of "better-the-devil-you-know...

...Addison De Witt is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist who lives in Mexico...

...He has filed charges with the Attorney General's office accusing Labastida of falsely declaring him "morally responsible" for the assassination that year of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio...

...But he did not see this coming because it would be too drastic a step for anyone belonging to the "authoritarian structure" Labastida represents...

...Still another accusation against Toledo is that while he was governor he furnished Felix Gallardo with an aura of respectability as well as with protection...

...In the end, the deciding factor in the 2000 presidential contest may not be conflicting philosophies of government but an unwanted debate as to whether one or both candidates is an irresponsible purveyor of slander...

...the Holy Inquisition...

...Fox had a healthy 47 to 35 per cent lead over Labastida, but the 26-35ers gave Labastida a 43 to 39 per cent edge...

...Bolstering this view was another tally, showing that 77 per cent of the voters wishing continuity preferred Labastida, while Fox won out among the change-oriented by 48 to 15 per cent, with 37 per cent registering "don't-know" or not responding...

...Although Camacho reluctantly swallowed this disappointment and performed his tour of duty in Chiapas, he left the PRI in June 1994 and subsequently organized the splinter party he heads today...

...Presidential Election Imponderables Campaign Sideshow in Mexico By Addison De Witt Mexico City Picture two swordsmen in a duel they must intermittently interrupt—to ward off assaults by two diminutive but fierce attack dogs who have each targeted one of them...

...Manuel Camacho is not the subject," was his constant response to reporters at a recent press conference...

...Among the 51+ voters it was no contest, with Labastida sweeping Fox by 55 to 25 per cent and the remainder of votes going to Cardenas or the fringe parties...

...The statement was at times greeted with guffaws, but Labastida persisted in refusing to discuss Camacho and his allegations...

...The controversy was sparked March 16, when Fox said Sinaloa was "the cradle of narcopolitics...

...In an apparent gesture of disassociation, Sinaloa PRI leader Eduardo Garrido Achoy announced that the decision to prosecute Fox had not been taken by the party but by Toledo acting on his own...

...Well, a poll taken at the end of March by the respected Milenio-Grupo showed Labastida leading Fox 42 to 39 per cent, with left-wing Cuauhtemoc Cardenas at 16 per cent and several minor parties totaling 3 per cent...

...As the candidate was getting into his car, he was accosted by a reporter who asked: "Are you going to respond to Camacho's charges...

...In a 1989 interview Corona had urged investigating officials who "give protection to those who have been publicly designated as drug dealers...

...The drug lord's parties were written up in society columns and judicial police functioned as bodyguards when he entertained at his house in Aitata...

...a case in point is ex-Governor Toledo Corro...

...Then you're not interested in responding...

...The bitter ancillary squabbles with Camacho and Toledo have introduced an imponderable...

...It would be gross oversimplification, however, to see the upcoming election as simply an ideological contest between Mr...

...As for the 36-50 group, at 30-44 years of age in 1994 they were already more economically entrenched than their immediate juniors...

...Tallies were far more even in the gender tabulation...

...Since they faced a steep rise in unemployment, many university graduates had to take menial jobs and many junior level executives were laid off...

...women favored Labastida by 44 to 3 9 per cent...

...In a statement accompanying his legal action, Toledo said that Fox "has to prove what he claimed...

...Camacho concluded the interview by dramatically producing a videotape showing Colosio, his alleged "victim," describing him as "the best man to make the peace" in Chiapas and as someone who has "rendered great services to the country and will continue to do so...

...That is a reasonably accurate metaphor for a strange but intriguing sideshow to what is shaping up as one of the most turbulent presidential elections in Mexico's history...

...What this suggests most of all, though, is a horse race...

...Salinas may have created 21 billionaires, yet Mexico is still a Third World country and affluent seniors are few and far between...

...This past March 20 he filed a "defamation and calumny" action against the PAN candidate for alleging that he was involved with drug dealers...

...This implied that Camacho actually had a hand in the conspiracy—a rather more serious matter than simply engaging in behavior that created a climate of suspicion and violence...

...If we accept the definition of "conservative" as tending to preserve established institutions and resist change, we're faced with an interesting irony: The conservative Fox could be defeated by a bloc of voters who adhere to one of the most established political institutions in history...

...Ambassador John Gavin, has said his chief told Mexico's Attorney General Sergio Garcia Ramirez in 1985 that Toledo was protecting Felix Gallardo, but the matter was not pursued...

...An oft-chanted mantra held that the true cause of JFK's death was the climate of hatred and suspicion hovering over Dallas on November 22, 1963...

...When Labastida says that I'm morally responsible for Colosio's death," Camacho asserted at a March 24 press conference, "he is not only uttering barbarities but completely demonstrating his ignorance...

...Circumstantial evidence that Toledo has ties with Mexico's drug cartels is far stronger than any hypothesis that Camacho may have played a direct or indirect role in the assassination of Colosio...

...false rumors spread by political foes...

...Additional suspicion was aroused by the fact that Toledo's ranch, Las Cabras, adjoined the property of Manuel Salcido, a particularly vicious drug criminal known as El Cochiloco (the Crazy Pig), who was gunned down in Guadalajara in 1993...

...Francisco Labastida Ochoa, candidate of the long entrenched (since 1928) Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is waging a vigorous campaign against his numero uno opponent, Vicente Fox Quesada of the moderate conservative National Action Party (PAN...

...Among university graduates, Fox had a whopping 59 to 26 per cent lead, yet among minimally educated voters Labastida had a stunning 66 to 17 per cent margin...

...They charged that Toledo, as Governor, enriched himself with state funds, used public services for his own benefit, looted municipal treasuries to build a superhighway, and tolerated police corruption and violence to an unprecedented degree...

...Stories about Toledo allowing Felix Gallardo to use Sinaloa as a safe house also surfaced in the Washington Post and in a Newsweek article by Elaine Shannon...

...Thus they seemed to favor a candidate who leans more toward opportunity instead of security...

...Stability (Labastida) and Mr...

...His accusers were several PAN legislators and a group on the Left that includes the veteran Marxist leader Heberto Castillo...

...While a public apology would satisfy Camacho, Antonio Toledo Corro is not prepared to be so forgiving about being called a "narcopolitician" by Vicente Fox...

...This would incline them to opt for a candidate who represents continuity rather than change...

...the Colosio case...

...Referring to his formal complaint lodged with the Attorney General, Camacho said he would be satisfied with a public apology from Labastida...

...If the judge condemns Fox I have the right to file a civil suit against him and obtain indemnification...

...In large part, these findings may be related to the 1994-95 economic crisis...

...that I played dominoes with Felix Gallardo...

...Having been burned by the market-oriented Salinas, they no doubt looked warily at Fox...

...In 1988, U.S...

...A testy Labastida thrust a piece of paper at the reporter that read: "I'm not giving a press conference today...

...Widening his attack to take a swipe at departing President Ernesto Zedillo, Camacho charged that four days before Colosio was assassinated Zedillo wrote him a letter advising him to align "100 per cent with Salinas" and have nothing to do with Camacho...

...Nevertheless, Norma Corona, head of the state's Human Rights Agency, was slain on Labastida's watch in May 1991...

...So it was perhaps no surprise when a poll taken in early May showed Fox pulling ahead of Labastida, 46.3 per cent to 41.6 per cent, with a 3.2 per cent margin of error...

...Among men, the top candidates were tied at 39 per cent...

...Moreover, Mexicans of mature years have been through not one economic crisis but three—the Luis Echeverria Alvarez devaluation in 1976, the José Lopez Portillo devaluation in 1982, and the 1994-95 nightmare...

...With the 36-50 group, though, Fox recaptured the lead 42 to 38 per cent...

...The paper said frantic efforts were made to stop the statement's broadcast and to put out a "correction," but it ran like a "rivulet" over the airwaves...

...The discrepancy is explained by the fact that Cardenas, nominee of the Party of the Democratic Republic (PRD), scored 19 per cent with men and only 14 per cent with women...

...Camacho further stated that the group fears him—and with good reason...

...It's about electricity rates...

...This is my agenda...

...Camacho added that the PRI'S candidate was totally in the hands of "a small group that surrounds him" and "doesn't think for himself...

...It's a problem between them," he said...

...But he obviously felt he had to take legal action after being accused by someone as high-profile as Fox...

...Labastida, speaking March 23 at Colosio's gravesite to mark the sixth anniversary of his murder also mentioned "those who provoked a climate of animosity...

...The next day Governor Juan S. Millán asked him to name names...